In a summer that will be full of memorable dates, May 3^rd 2012 may not spring to mind for many people in years to come; however, for 35 Powerade consumers (and a few Coca-Cola and Synergy staff) this will probably be one of the most memorable days in not just this Olympic year, but any year.

Powerade, as the official hydration partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, gave 35 lucky consumers the unique opportunity to step into the Olympic Stadium and set their 100m ‘Personal Best’ before anyone else. It was the culmination of three months of hard work from the Synergy team, who project-managed and coordinated the event, working alongside a number of other Powerade agencies.

So how did consumers win the chance to participate? Our brief was to develop an entry mechanic that was innovative and fun that would also deliver the brand some great content. Cue ‘Olympic Planking’ -  encouraging people to adopt the iconic ‘On Your Marks’ pose wherever they saw fit, and submit a photo of this via Twitter to @poweradegb using the #onyourmarks hashtag. It was a simple mechanic, accessible to all and, critically, fun. Additionally, it was the first foray into Twitter for any Coca-Cola brand in the UK.

Powerade ambassador Jessica Ennis launched the campaign to her Twitter following of 150,000 fans. Within a minute of her first tweet, @poweradegb had 300 followers and the campaign was up and running.

Over the course of the next three weeks, we leveraged other Powerade relationships (such as The Football League and Rangers FC) and targeted specific Olympic-related accounts (getting some great retweets and promotion in the process) to build up almost 6,000 followers and hundreds of entries into the Powerade #onyourmarks competition. The entries were then reviewed by our celebrity judges – Jess and fellow Powerade ambassador Derval O’Rourke – and a final 35 were selected and invited to the Olympic Stadium event.

Race day began with a Jess Ennis inspired breakfast at 7.30am, after which around 150 competitors, spectators, suppliers, media and LOCOG staff made their way to the Olympic Stadium. Before Toni Minichiello – Jess’s coach – and Derval got everyone limbered up, there was time for a good luck message from Jess herself.

Then it was on with the warm-up and a crash course in sprint starts from Toni and Derval on the indoor track.

But the real excitement came with the races proper, out on the Olympic track. After the 16 heats, we emerged with the top eight men and women who would battle it out in the On Your Marks finals. Congratulations to Evan McGuire and Bethany Hirst, who both posted outstanding times of 11.37s and 13.34s respectively.

In the following days, we got some fantastic feedback from competitors, spectators and media alike. The @poweradegb Twitter account has been helping to promote the Olympics Sports Bottle promotion and will now help bring a UK audience to the global @powerade account.

More engagement opportunities for Powerade consumers, and hopefully, there will be some more success on the track for both Jess and Derval this summer.

By Synergy on May 31st, 2012

Tags: Athletics, Event management consultants, Olympics, Running, Social Media, Twitter, Viral Marketing

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